Pamela Swidler, Deputy General Counsel, Real Estate and Regional General Counsel, Americas, WeWork

Kramer Levin was founded on a commitment to recruiting the best lawyers and building a collaborative environment where they could grow and thrive. Through our Alumni Profiles series, we proudly share the important and exciting work our alumni have undertaken. 

Pamela Swidler is Deputy General Counsel, Real Estate and Regional General Counsel, Americas at WeWork. Pam began her career at Kramer Levin as a summer associate in 2006. From 2007 through 2016, she worked in the Real Estate department where her practice covered a wide range of commercial real estate transactional matters. Pam also served as a member of the firm's Associates Committee. 

Pamela Swidler Deputy General Counsel, Real Estate and Regional General Counsel, Americas, WeWork

Many current Kramer Levin lawyers as well as alumni have made a lasting impact on my career, and I value the opportunity to continue this relationship with the firm.

How did your time at Kramer Levin help you prepare for your current role?

Kramer Levin afforded me the unique opportunity to have exposure to training and experience with a vast range of real estate deals and industry clients, and to do so with a brilliant and experienced team of real estate lawyers that I was able learn from and work with. I was fortunate enough to work on some of New York City's largest and most complex developments, sales, acquisitions, loans, leases and other deals that don't quite fall into a single "category." I'm tempted to list everyone in the department that helped me and to cite examples but that could be a whole separate article. Having that range of opportunity and experience, together with access to the expertise of the lawyers in the department trained me to be able to pick up anything that came across my desk and, even if it was something I was not familiar with, draw from prior experience to ask the right questions, focus on what mattered to each client and bring about the best outcome. That skill is fundamental to what I do every single day! 

What types of projects are you working on now?

WeWork is a super fast moving company with an ever growing list of exciting projects and deals. While one of my biggest projects is managing and growing the real estate legal team to support our deal pipeline, on the real estate side I work on everything from individual lease agreements wherever the team needs additional support around the world, to partnership agreements with some of our global real estate partners. More recently as Regional General Counsel I have been more involved in agreements with our members, developing the right documents for the implementation and sale of our new product lines and various types of commercial partnerships. 

What made you want to be involved with the Kramer Levin Alumni program? 

As I mentioned above there are so many people at Kramer Levin that I feel fortunate to have worked with and that helped, trained and placed their trust in me over the years, and found that this is a firm filled with not only very talented and smart lawyers but all around thoughtful, kind, interesting and generous professionals, and I feel very honored to call many of them my friends. Many current Kramer Levin lawyers as well as alumni have made a lasting impact on my career and I value the opportunity to continue this relationship with the firm.